From the May 15, 2001 City Council Minutes, page 4, Consent Agenda:
13. NO. R2001-023
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL SUPPORTING THE PERSONAL USE OF BICYCLES CHECKED-OUT TO EMPLOYEES UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE CITY OF DENTON EMPLOYEE BIKE CHECKOUT PROGRAM; AND DECLARING AN EFFECTIVE DATE.
which was passed:
Burroughs motioned, McNeill seconded to approve the Consent Agenda except for Item #15. On roll vote, Beasley “aye”, Burroughs “aye”, Fulton “aye”, McNeill “aye”, Phillips “aye”, Redmon “aye”, and Mayor Brock “aye”. Motion carried unanimously.
Anyone know the rest of the story, if there is one?
Yes, we are currently working on reviving the City Employee Bike to Work Program. The program was an off-shoot of CoD Alternate Transportation Day events of some years past and was successful for a couple of years.
We created the program in attempt to bring bicycle commuting – and bicycling in general – into the mainstream in Denton with city employees setting the example. The design was to give employees the opportunity to try cycling to work without buying a bike only to find out that cycling was not for them. They could simply turn the bike in and give another employee a chance to check it out. If employees enjoyed their cycling experience we encouraged them to purchase their own bike and offered assistance in selecting the appropriate bike for their needs.
Then Councilman Mark Burroughs, donated his council staff funds to purchase eight “urban bikes” for the program. All participating employees attended an eight-hour bike safety program conducted by the police department bike patrol instructors that included classroom and on-bike sessions. The training was approved by the city as an in-service training day.
Lately there has been enough interest generated among employees that we think we can dust off the program and begin to encourage employees to try cycling again.
There are a few administrative steps we have to take and a few offical approvals needed before we do so, but I am confident we can make it happen.
I’ll post updates as they occur.
Hello!
I am a faculty member at UNT. Before coming here, I was assoc. prof. at UK in Lexington, KY. There the University had a bike check-out program, renewable with university ID. It was fantastic. In short order TIAA-Cref sponsored the program and, in addition to individual bikes, there were departmental bikes available to commuters for getting around campus and downtown. Wonderful. So wonderful that when I moved here I purchased my Wildcat Wheels (named after the UK basketball team) bike. You can see me riding around town and campus on my yellow bike with blue Wildcat Wheels lettering. 🙂 Let’s go Green!! Check-out bikes!!!
XO
Jennifer Lane
Associate Professor of Voice
College of Music
University of North Texas
Denton, TX 76203